Template:Vcite journal/doc

These templates format citations to sources. They have the following major variants:

• {{vcite book}} for books
• {{vcite journal}} for articles in academic journals and similar periodicals. You can use the Diberri template filler to generate this template, by replacing "cite" with "vcite" in its output.
• {{vcite news}} for articles in newspapers and similar news sources
• {{vcite web}} for web pages, that is, sources published as part of web sites that are not books, journals, or news

These templates can be used in Wikipedia footnotes and in article sections that list sources. They generally follow the Vancouver system as specified by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). For performance reasons they do not generate COinS metadata (see Rationale below); otherwise, they act much like {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc.

Usage

See Examples below for filled-out examples.

Common parameters

Entire book (see example)

{{vcite book |

author= | chapter= | title= | publisher= | date= | isbn= | pages= }}

Contribution to a book (see example)

{{vcite book |

author= | chapter= | editor= | title= | publisher= | date= | isbn= | pages= }}

Journal article (see example)

{{vcite journal |

author= | title= | journal= | date= | volume= | issue= | pages= | url= | doi= | pmid= | pmc= }}

News article (see example)

{{vcite news |

author= | title= | url= | work= | date= }}

Web page (see example)

{{vcite web |

author= | home= | title= | url= | date= | accessdate= }}

All main parameters

The core templates have names starting with vcite, such as {{vcite book}}. Each such template has a variant whose name starts with vancite, such as {{vancite book}}, which supports some extra parameters for backward compatibility, but is slower and more complicated.

Book (see example)

{{vcite book |

author= | author.= | chapter= | chapter.= | trans_chapter= | chapterurl= | chapterformat= | editor= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | url= | contenttype= | format= | editionphrase= | editionphrase.= | secondaryauthor= | volumephrase= | volumetitle= | volumepagination= | location= | publisher= | date= | update= | accessdate= | pagination= | physicaldescription= | serieseditor= | series= | seriesvolumephrase= | language= | doi= | doi_brokendate= | id= | isbn= | oclc= | quote= | laysummary= | laysource= | laydate= | notes= | chapterid= | chapterupdate= | chapteraccessdate= | pages= | at= | chapterlanguage= | harvid= | ref= }}

Journal article (see example)

{{vcite journal |

author= | author.= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | articletype= | journal= | journal.= | edition= | journalformat= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | volume= | issue= | pages= | language= | url= | format= | doi= | doi_brokendate= | id= | pmid= | pmc= | bibcode= | quote= | laysummary= | laysource= | laydate= | notes= | partid= | parttitle= | parttitle.= | trans_parttitle= | partp= | parturl= | harvid= | ref= }}

News article (see example)

{{vcite news |

author= | author.= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | url= | format= | work= | work.= | location= | edition= | workformat= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | sectionphrase= | section= | pages= | column= | language= | agency= | publisher= | id= | quote= | notes= | harvid= | ref= }}

Web page (see example)

{{vcite web |

author= | author.= | home= | home.= | trans_home= | homeurl= | homeformat= | homeeditionphrase= | homeeditionphrase.= | homeedition= | secondaryauthor= | location= | publisher= | homedate= | homeupdate= | homeaccessdate= | homelanguage= | homenotes= | format= | title= | trans_title= | url= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | pages= | size= | language= | id= | quote= | notes= | harvid= | ref= }}

Terminology

article

an individual article or document within a journal or newspaper

book

an entire major published work

chapter

a single part of or contribution to a book: this might be a chapter, or some other part such as an appendix, figure, or table

journal

academic journal, magazine, or any other archival periodical publication

newspaper

a newspaper or any similar periodical publication

web page

a web page that is not part of a book, journal, or newspaper. When citing a web page, it is important to identify the source. At the very least this should include an author; when possible, it should also include the publisher or homepage of the web site in question. For example, when citing comments by Professor X at the web page http://www.example.edu/~professorx/study/comments.html it's good practice to also cite the title of Professor X's homepage, which you might find by consulting http://www.example.edu/~professorx/index.html.

Parameters

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date the URL (see |url=) was last accessed and checked; see Dates. This parameter is intended to be used for websites that typically change pages after they are published; it is not normally needed for websites that do not typically change published pages, such as pages in archival journals.

|Template:Visible anchor=Agency

The news agency that distributed the article, as in Associated Press or Reuters.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date the resource was archived as described under |archiveurl=; see Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

The URL of an archived copy of the resource identified by |url=, if (or in case) the original resource is unavailable. This is typically used to refer to services like WebCite and the Internet Archive.

|Template:Visible anchor=Type

The type of journal article. This should be omitted for standard articles. When specified, the most common values are abstract and letter; other values include book review, editorial, and interview.

|Template:Visible anchor=Location

The location in a book of the chapter or part being identified. By convention, use |pages= if the location is a page or range of pages, and use |at= if the location is something else, such as [about 10 p.].

|Template:Visible anchor=Author(s)

Author or authors of the resource. See Authors.

For {{vcite book}}, if |editor= is also given this is assumed to be the author of the chapter, otherwise of the book. If the entire book has both authors and other contributors, such as editors or translators, list the latter under |secondaryauthor=. If the entire book has no listed authors, but only editors or other contributors, list them here and omit |secondaryauthor=. If a chapter is being cited but it is not by different authors or editors than the entire book, list the contributors here and omit |editor=.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Author(s) ends in a period (.), specify an empty |author.= parameter to suppress any duplicate periods in the output.

|Template:Visible anchor=Bibcode

The journal article's bibcode in the Astrophysics Data System, as in 1924MNRAS..84..308E.

|Template:Visible anchor=Chapter title

Title of the part of the book being cited; often this is a chapter title. See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_chapter=.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Chapter title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |chapter.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the chapter.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date the chapter's URL (see |chapterurl=) was last accessed and checked; see Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=Format

The format of the resource that |chapterurl= links to. Specify PDF for Portable Document Format. Omit if the article is published in HTML or XHTML. This is an extension to the NLM Vancouver style; it is added here because Wikipedia articles are commonly hyperlinked, whereas the NLM style is purely text.

|Template:Visible anchor=ID

Identification for the chapter, as in Appendix A.

|Template:Visible anchor=Language

The language of the chapter, if not English. This need not be given if it is the same as |language=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Update action and date

The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the chapter was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009. See Dates. This need not be given if it is the same as |updated=.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

URL of the chapter. This should point to a freely readable version of the full text. If the full text is not freely readable, give this parameter only if the book has no other identification such as |isbn=. When giving this parameter, also give |chapteraccessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.

|Template:Visible anchor=Column

The column number the newspaper article started in, as in 3.

|Template:Visible anchor=type

The type of book, if it is not a standard book. Possible values include dissertation, master's thesis, and bibliography.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date of publication; see Dates.

• For book publication dates it is often simplest to specify just the year, even if a more precise date is known, as a too-precise publication date may distract the reader with useless and even misleading information when a source is written well before its official publication date.
• For journals, the month and day are optional unless |volume= and |issue= are both missing. For journal publication dates it is often simplest to specify just the year, even if a more precise date is known, as a too-precise publication date may distract the reader with useless and even misleading information when a source is written well before its official publication date.
• For newspapers it is best to give the full date.
• For web pages, omit this if it is the same as |homedate=.

|Template:Visible anchor=DOI

A digital object identifier for the chapter, book, or journal article, such as 10.1130/0091-7613(1990)018<1153:TAFSIA>2.3.CO;2.

• For books, if |chapter= is also given, DOI should be the DOI for the chapter if available. Often the two DOIs are related; for example, the chapter with DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04568-4_45 belongs to a book with DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04568-4.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

The most recent date that DOI was checked and found to be not working; see Dates. This can happen when a publication is transferred to a new publisher which does not provide DOI access. DOI is still shown, but without a link, and the article is placed in Category:Pages with DOIs broken since YYYY, where YYYY }} is the date's year.

|Template:Visible anchor=Edition

The edition or version being cited, if the source is published in more than one edition.

• With books, this is equivalent to |editionphrase=, except that it appends " ed." instead of just a period; common values include 2nd, 3rd, and Rev. See |editionphrase= for details.
• With journals, this uses the same sort of abbreviations as the |journal= parameter, for example, Off Ed for Office Edition.
• With newspapers, capitalize each important word and use common abbreviations, as in Metro Ed. and English Ed.

|Template:Visible anchor=Edition phrase

For books, a complete phrase specifying the edition or version being cited, if the book is published in more than one. In the NLM Vancouver style this uses Arabic ordinals and abbreviations, with the first word capitalized and periods after abbreviations. The |editionphrase= parameter should be used instead of |edition= if "." should be appended rather than the typical " ed." Examples where this might be needed include foreign-language editions such as Shohan and other phrases such as 2009–2010 ed., fully rev. and expand.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Edition phrase ends in a period, specify an empty |editionphrase.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the edition phrase.

|Template:Visible anchor=Editor(s)

Editor or editors of the book. This uses the same format as for |author=; see Authors. Editor(s) should contain roles, as in Smith RB, editor and Smith RB, Jones WR, editors. When both |author= and |editor= are given, it is assumed that the authors contributed a chapter to the editors' book, and |chapter= should also be given. Otherwise, the editors are listed in place of the authors. If the entire book has both authors and editors, the editors should be listed under |secondaryauthor=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Format

The type of medium for the source. Specify PDF if |url= specifies a resource in Portable Document Format. Omit |format= if the source is published in HTML or XHTML. Other possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm for books, and video, videocast, and podcast for web pages. Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.

• For journal and news sources, this parameter is an extension to the NLM Vancouver style; it is added here because Wikipedia articles are commonly hyperlinked, whereas the NLM style is purely text.

|Template:Visible anchor=ID

An anchor suitable for Harvard citations; see Anchors. For example, the |harvid=SmithJones2010 might be used as a target of the Harvard citation {{harv|Smith|Jones|2010}}, and it is equivalent to |ref={{harvid|Smith|Jones|2010}}. If |harvid= and |ref= are both given, |harvid= is ignored.

|Template:Visible anchor=Homepage title

The homepage's title; see Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_home=.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Homepage title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |home.= parameter to suppress the period that would otherwise follow the homepage title.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date the homepage (see |homeurl=) was last accessed and checked; see Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

Date of publication for the home page; see Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=Edition

The edition or version of the homepage being cited. This is equivalent to |editionphrase=, except that it appends " ed." instead of just a period.

|Template:Visible anchor=Edition phrase

The edition or version being cited, if the homepage is published in more than one. In the NLM Vancouver style this uses Arabic ordinals and abbreviations, with the first word capitalized and periods after abbreviations. The |editionphrase= parameter should be used instead of |homeedition= if "." should be appended rather than the typical " ed."

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Edition phrase ends in a period, specify an empty |homeeditionphrase.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the homepage edition phrase.

|Template:Visible anchor=Format

The type of medium for the homepage, as in PDF; see |format=. The NLM Vancouver style specifies Internet as the only value, and it also specifies a content type prefix of homepage, as in homepage on the Internet.

|Template:Visible anchor=Language

The language of the homepage, if not English.

|Template:Visible anchor=Notes

Any further information about the homepage. This should be brief; complete sentences are not needed. End it with a period.

|Template:Visible anchor=Update action and date

The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the homepage was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009. See Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

URL of the homepage. When giving this parameter, also give |homeaccessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.

|Template:Visible anchor=ID

A unique identifier, used if no other ID is available. Omit this if a more specialized parameter such as |isbn= or |oclc= is also given. The ID should specify the kind of identifier used.

|Template:Visible anchor=ID

A unique identifier, used if no other ID is available. Omit this if a more specialized parameter is also given, such as |doi=, |isbn=, |oclc=, or |pmid=. The ID should specify the kind of identifier used, as in {{patent|US|6556992}}, which generates Template:Patent. Other ID-generating templates include {{arxiv}}, {{JFM}}, {{JSTOR}} {{MathSciNet}}, and {{Zbl}}.

|Template:Visible anchor=isbn

The book's International Standard Book Number such as 978-0-231-14636-4. The hyphens may be omitted, as in |isbn=9780231146364. Prefer 13- to 10-digit ISBNs if both are available. Convert an SBN to an ISBN by prefixing it with a zero. See Wikipedia:ISBN for more about ISBNs in Wikipedia.

|Template:Visible anchor=Issue

The issue number of the journal. Use an Arabic number, without any preceding "number" or "no." If it is a range, use an en dash, as in 1–2. Issues may be named, as in Anniversary issue, or an issue supplement or part, as in 3 Suppl, 16 Suppl Pt 1, or a special number, as in 3 Spec No.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

Name of the journal. This should be the name as it was published at the time. In the NLM Vancouver style, journal names are abbreviated by omitting insignificant words and replacing the rest with abbreviations, with no periods. For example, The Journal of Biocommunication becomes J Biocommun without any periods. Lists of standard journal abbreviations are available. In some other styles, journal names are spelled out in full, or contain periods after abbreviations.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Journal name ends in a period, question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |journal.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the journal name.

|Template:Visible anchor=Format

The type of medium for the entire journal. Possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm. Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.

|Template:Visible anchor=Language

The language of the source, if not English.

|Template:Visible anchor=Date

The lay summary's publication date; see Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=Source

The lay summary's source, for example, New York Times.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

The URL of the lay summary, which could be in the popular press.

|Template:Visible anchor=Location

Place of publication. For newspapers this is appended to the newspaper name, in parentheses; see |work=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Notes

Any further information. This should be brief; complete sentences are not needed. End it with a period.

|Template:Visible anchor=OCLC

The book's Online Computer Library Center number, such as 3185581. This is particularly useful for older books that lack an ISBN.

|Template:Visible anchor=Pages

The page number or numbers of the source. Use en dashes in page ranges, as in 99–106. For a single hyphenated page number such as "3‑5", use a non-breaking hyphen ("‑" or "‑") rather than a regular hyphen, so that it is not inadvertently changed to an en dash by another editor or by a bot. In the NLM Vancouver style, a page range does not repeat page numbers (for example, 1447–50 rather than Template:!xt) unless they are followed by a letter (for example, 1447A–1450A).

• For books, use the page numbers of the chapter, as in 100 or 37, 39. In accordance with the Vancouver style, this will be displayed with a leading "p. ", regardless of whether the argument is a single page number or several numbers.
• For journals, use the page numbers of the journal article.
• For news, use the page numbers of the article, if the printed edition was consulted. In the NLM Vancouver style, only the first page number is given.
• For web pages, use this if only part of the web page is being cited. For example, if the URL is a PDF file, this might be 603–4.

|Template:Visible anchor=Pagination

The total number of pages in the book, followed by a space and "p", as in 495 p. Or if the book is multivolume, list the number of volumes followed by a space and "vol", as in 4 vol. Do not append a period. If a chapter is cited, use |pages= or |at= instead of |pagination=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Part ID

Use this when citing just a part of the article. Give the article's identification for the part, as in Table 2 or Figure 1A.

|Template:Visible anchor=Part pages

The page or pages of the part being cited, in the same format as |pages=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Part title

The title of the part being cited. See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_parttitle=. This can be combined with |partid= and |pages= to produce most citations for article parts; complex examples, such as citing parts available in multiple languages, should be placed at the end of |notes= instead.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Part title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, and if no |partp= is given, specify an empty |parttitle.= parameter to suppress the period that would otherwise follow the title.

|Template:Visible anchor=Part URL

The URL of the part being cited, if this differs from that of the article.

|Template:Visible anchor=Physical description

The book's physical characteristics if it requires special equipment to read, as in 3 microfiche, blue & white, negative, 5×10&cm. If this is given |format= should also be given.

|Template:Visible anchor=PMC

The article's PubMed Central number, such as 2699548. This provides free full-text access.

|Template:Visible anchor=PMID

The article's PubMed Unique Identifier, as in 15128012. This provides access to an abstract and citation, and is a standard identifier in medicine and health-related fields. It may be useful even if |doi= is available, as it may point to a freely readable copy when the DOI does not, and PubMed servers are often more reliable than servers for DOIs.

|Template:Visible anchor=Publisher

The organization or individual that issued the resource. This can be abbreviated if well-known, for example, Wiley for John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

• For books, use the publisher's name as recorded in the book.
• For news, this parameter should normally not be used; it is present only for backward compatibility with {{cite news}}. In practice, |agency= or |work= should be used instead.
• For web pages, se the publisher's name as recorded in the homepage.

|Template:Visible anchor=Quote

An optional brief and relevant except from the source. It is surrounded by double quotes "like this", so it should use single-quotes internally.

|Template:Visible anchor=Anchor

An anchor for this citation; see Anchors. It should begin with a letter.

|Template:Visible anchor=Secondary author(s)

Editors, translators, illustrators, and other secondary authors. See Authors. Secondary author(s) should contain roles, as in Smith RB, editor and Wu RB, Jones WR, illustrators.

• For books, this parameter should refer to the entire book (not just to a chapter), and should be used only if |author= is also used; in the common case where the author wrote a chapter of a book that has an editor, use |editor= for the editors instead of |secondaryauthor=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Section

This is convenient shorthand for |sectionphrase=Sect. Section.

|Template:Visible anchor=Section phrase

The section of the newspaper that the article was published in, as in Home & Family. By convention, use |section= if this is a number.

|Template:Visible anchor=Series

The name of the series of the book.

|Template:Visible anchor=Editor(s)

The editor or editors of the series, followed by ", editor"; see Authors. The |series= parameter should also be specified.

|Template:Visible anchor=Volume phrase

The volume or number of the book in the series, using the same terminology the source uses, as in no. 7, vol. 7, or just plain 7. The |series= parameter should also be specified.

|Template:Visible anchor=Volume

A convenience parameter; |seriesvolume=7 is equivalent to |seriesvolumephrase=vol. 7.

|Template:Visible anchor=Size

The size of the web page, as in 950 kB, about 15 screens, 5 p., about 10 p., 4 paragraphs. If it contains a podcast or other timed data, specify its duration, as in about 30 sec. or 2 min., 31 sec.}

|Template:Visible anchor=Title

Title of the source. See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_title=.

• For books, this is the title of the entire book.
• For journals and news, this is the title of the article.
• For web pages, this is the title of the web page.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Title ends in a question mark, exclamation point or period, specify an empty |title.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the title.

|Template:Visible anchor=Translated chapter title

Translation of |chapter= (the chapter title) into English. See Titles.

|Template:Visible anchor=Translated homepage title

Translation of |home= (the homepage title) into English. See Titles.

|Template:Visible anchor=Translated title of article part

Translation of |parttitle= (the title of the article part) into English. See Titles.

|Template:Visible anchor=Translated title

Translation of |title= (the title) into English. See Titles.

|Template:Visible anchor=Update action and date

The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the source was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009. See Dates.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

URL of the source. This should point to a freely readable version of the full text. If the full text is not freely readable, give this parameter only if the source has no other identification such as |doi=, |id=, or |isbn=. When giving this parameter, also give |accessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.

• For books, this should point to the entire book. If it is just a chapter, use |chapterurl=.
• For journals and news, this should point to the entire article.
• For journals, if it just a part of the article, use |parturl=. The URL should not point to PubMed Central; use |pmc= for that.
• For the web, this should point to the individual web page.

|Template:Visible anchor=Volume

• For books, the volume number of a multivolume book. This is a convenience parameter; |volume=7 is equivalent to |volumephrase=Vol. 7.
• For journals, the volume number of the journal. Use an Arabic number, without any preceding "volume" or "vol." If it is a range, use an en dash, as in 1–2.

|Template:Visible anchor=Pagination

The total number of pages in the book volume, followed by a space and "p", as in 495 p. Other formats are also allowed, in unusual cases, such as p. 1027–997 for a volume that is continuously paged from the previous volume. Do not append a period. If a chapter is cited, use |pages= or |at= instead of |pagination=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Volume

Which volume of the book was cited. Use an Arabic number, such as Vol. 3 or Pt. 3. This parameter is intended for multivolume books, when only one volume is being cited; for books that are volumes in a series, use |seriesvolumephrase= instead.

|Template:Visible anchor=Volume title

Title of book volume. See Titles.

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Volume title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |volumetitle.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the title.

|Template:Visible anchor=Work name

Name of the newspaper or other published work that contains the news article. This should be the name as it was published at the time. Do not abbreviate the newspaper name, except it is OK to omit a leading "The", as in New York Times. If the title does not indicate where the newspaper is published, add the location, as in The ''(Baltimore)'' Sun and Daily Nation (Nairobi); if a location is not well-known, follow it with the state or country, as in The Record ''(Stockton, CA)'', East Valley ''(AZ)'' Tribune, and Le Journal du Jura ''(Bienne, Switzerland)''. For convenience, if the parenthesized part is at the end, |location= can be used instead, as in "|work=Daily Nation |location=Nairobi".

|Template:Visible anchor=

If Work name ends in a period, question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |work.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the work name.

|Template:Visible anchor=Format

The type of medium for the entire newspaper or other published work. Possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm. Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.

Formats

Typically, parameter values are displayed as entered, without reformatting or linking. This section gives advice as to how to format commonly-used parameters.

Authors

Authors should be formatted consistently within a Wikipedia article's citations. There is no Wikipedia-wide consensus about what format to use for authors. The Vancouver system suggests one of two main styles:

Commas separating authors

Use the author's surname (as spelled by the author) and then initials, with no punctuation within an author's name. Convert family rank to Arabic ordinals such as 3rd but keep Sr and Jr alone. Omit degrees, titles, and honors. Romanize non-roman alphabets. Spell out organizational authors, and separate them from other authors with semicolons. Omit "Anonymous". Some examples:

• Smith RB, Hu AL
• O'Malley AR, L'Engle JZ, S'adeh M, St Cloud M, Smythe-Jones ER
• van der Platt J, Happé J, Sanchez Garcia JM, Lopez y Fuentes P
• Smith RC Jr, Jones B III, Barney MR Jr; American College of Academics

Semicolons separating authors

This is similar, except separate authors with a semicolon, and spell out author names in full, surname first, with comma separating surname from given name and with periods following abbreviations. Some examples:

• Smith, Roger B.; Hu, Albert L.
• Smith, Robert C. Jr; Jones, Bertram III; Barney, Max R. Jr; American College of Academics

If the contributors to a book are not authors, follow their names with a comma and their role. The role should not be abbreviated. Separate multiple roles with a semicolon. Some examples:

• Smith RB, editor
• Smith RB, Hu AL, editors
• Jones AR, translator; Joseph RW, illustrator

If there are many authors, replace the trailing authors with et al. or and others. Typically the first three or six authors are kept. In one variant, all authors are listed unless there are more than six authors, in which case just the first three are listed. The limit of three or six often applies separately to individual and to institutional authors.

Dates

Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)

Like authors, there is no consensus on Wikipedia about which date format to use in citations. Dates should use a consistent format within an article, and this format need not be the same as in the article's prose. Some formats are specified by the Vancouver system, and some other formats are also in common use on Wikipedia.

All formats allow a plain year, such as 2009, to stand for that year.

Vancouver dates

The Vancouver system uses the following date formats:

• 2009 Jan 2 for the second day of January in 2009. Use three-letter English-language month abbreviations, with no periods. 2009 Jan stands for the entire month.
• 2009 Winter for seasons. Use English-language season names without abbreviation.
• 2009 Dec 31–2010 Jan 7 for date ranges. Separate the dates with en dashes. Other examples: 2009 Dec–2010 Jan if days are omitted, 2009–2010 if months are omitted, 2009 Jan–Feb if years are the same (and similarly for seasons), and 2009 Jan 1–10 if months are the same.

YYYY-MM-DD

2009-01-02 for the second day of January in 2009. This format is useful for citations that may be reused in foreign-language Wikipedias, since it is recognized globally.

Day Month Year

2 January 2009 for the same example, and January 2009 for the entire month.

Month Day, Year

January 2, 2009 for the same example, and January 2009 for the entire month.

Titles

Use sentence case, the same way that you would capitalize an ordinary sentence, to capitalize the title of a minor work such as a chapter or article. Do this even if the original title capitalizes every word.

Use title case, in which every important word is capitalized, to capitalize the title of a major work such as a book, volume, journal, or newspaper. (The NLM Vancouver style uses sentence case even for book and volume titles, but Wikipedia style is to use title case.)

If a | title= value is in a foreign language, put its translation into | trans_title=, and similarly for | chapter= and | trans_chapter=, for | home= and | trans_home=, and for | parttitle= and | trans_parttitle=. This will display as the original title followed by the translation in square brackets. The original title is often omitted as it is rarely important to English language readers. If including the original title, use the appropriate case of the source language; for example, for the book Man's Fate one might use "|title=La Condition humaine |trans_title=Man's Fate".

Use ": " to separate a title from a subtitle, unless some other punctuation is already present.

Anchors

The | ref=Anchor parameter adds an anchor to the citation, so that it can be a target of a wikilink to the citation, as in [[#Anchor|text]]. This is useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing.

Harvard references such as {{harv}} are a common form of parenthetical referencing, and the | harvid=ID parameter is a convenient way to generate an anchor suitable for Harvard referencing templates. The contents of this parameter should be the last names of the authors of the citation (omitting any authors after the first four), followed by the year, all jammed together without spaces or punctuation. For example, article prose might contain the markup {{harv|Peh|Ng|2009}}, which generates the Harvard reference (Peh & Ng 2009). To have this link to a citation, use |harvid=PehNg2009, such as in the following:

{{vcite journal |author=Peh WC, Ng KH |title=Preparing the references |journal=Singapore Med J |volume=50 |issue=7 |pages=659–61 |date=2009 |pmid=19644619 |url=http://smj.sma.org.sg/5007/5007emw1.pdf |format=PDF |harvid=PehNg2009 }}

This generates the following citation:

Peh WC, Ng KH. Preparing the references [PDF]. Singapore Med J. 2009;50(7):659–61. PMID 19644619.

This citation is the target of the Harvard reference. To see how it works, click on the "(Peh & Ng 2009)".

Compatibility

These templates are intended to be used in place of {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc. For efficiency reasons they do not support all uses of {{cite book}} etc., but they do support the following commonly used and documented parameters.

|Template:Visible anchor=Day

See |year=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Month

See |year=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Page

The default value for |pages=.

|Template:Visible anchor=Year

The year of publication. This provides a default value for |date=. If |year= is used and the citation is to a relatively timely source such as a newspaper or a web page, the parameters |month= and |day= also contribute to the default date.

The following backward-compatibility arguments are supported by {{vancite book}} etc., but for simplicity and performance reasons they are not supported by {{vcite book}} etc. This is the only way in which the vcite and vancite variants disagree. New uses of these templates should avoid these parameters, and should use the main parameters listed above.

|Template:Visible anchor=Location

• For books, this parameter is supported by {{vcite book}} as well as by {{vancite book}}.
• For journals, the default value for |pages=.
• Similarly for the web, except that leading "p. " is not prepended.

|Template:Visible anchor=Author

The first author. Similarly for |author2=, |author3=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

A wikilink to be placed around the author. Similarly for |authorlink1=, |authorlink2=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Mask

Mask for the author, for books and journals.

|Template:Visible anchor=Separator

Separator between authors' last and first names, for journals.

|Template:Visible anchor=Separator

Separator between authors, for journals.

|Template:Visible anchor=URL

Equivalent to |author2=.

|Template:Visible anchor=N

Display at most N authors, for journals.

|Template:Visible anchor=Editor

The first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor2=, |editor3=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Name

First name of first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor2-first=, |editor3-first=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Name

Last name of first ecditor, for books. Similarly for |editor2-last=, |editor3-last=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Page

A wikilink to be placed around the first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor1-link=, |editor2-link=, |editor3-link=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Name

First name of first author. Similarly for |first1=, |first2=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

The default value for |work=, for news.

|Template:Visible anchor=Name

Last name of first author. Similarly for |last1=, |last2=, etc.

|Template:Visible anchor=Boolean

Whether to use "&" before the last author's name, for books.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.

|Template:Visible anchor=Journal name

The default value for |journal=, for journals; and the default value for |home=, for web pages.

The following {{cite book}} parameters are not supported.

Parameter
|postscript=
|separator=

The following {{cite journal}} parameters are not supported. Typically their values should be folded into the values of related parameters.

Parameter	What to do when converting to {{vcite journal}}
|editor1-first=, etc.	Fold into |notes=.
|editor1-last=, etc.	Fold into |notes=.
|editor1-link=, etc.	Fold into |notes=.
|issn=	Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|location=	Place of publication. Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|oclc=	Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|postscript=	Not supported.
|publisher=	Publisher. Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|series=	Fold into |volume=.
|version=	Fold into |volume=.

Template:Visible anchor

Parameters associated with a citation to the entire journal are not displayed by {{cite journal}} and {{vancite journal}}; these parameters would be suitable for a {{vcite entire journal}} template, should one be written. Such parameters are usually not needed; exceptional cases can be folded into |notes=.

Periods after parameters

If the |title= parameter's value ends in a period, question mark, or exclamation point, the period that normally follows the title can be suppressed by specifying an empty |title.= parameter. Parameters such as |author.= behave similarly. Parameters such as |title.= and |author.= are not needed with {{cite book}} etc., which punctuates these parameters differently.

Examples

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite book | author=Offit PA | title=Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure | date=2008 | publisher=Columbia University Press | isbn=978-0-231-14636-4}}

• Template:Vcite book

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite book | author=Kossoff EH, Freeman JM | chapter=The ketogenic diet—the physician's perspective | editor=Stafstrom CE, Rho JM, editors | title=Epilepsy and the ketogenic diet | publisher=Humana | date=2004 | pages=53–61 | isbn=1-58829-295-9}}

• Template:Vcite book

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite book | author=John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. | author.= | chapter=Is this a real chapter title? | chapter.= | trans_chapter=Est-ce que c'un vrai chapitre est titre? | chapterurl=http://example.com/chapter | chapterformat=PDF | editor=John Adams Jr., editor | title=Is this a real book title? | title.= | url=http://example.com/book | contenttype=bibliography | format=PDF | editionphrase=2., Aufl. | editionphrase.= | secondaryauthor=B.C. Smith, translator; L.T. Jones, illustrator | volumephrase=Pt. 3 | volumetitle=Is this a real volume title? | volumepagination=507 p | location=New York | publisher=Bibliophile Press | date=2008 | update=updated 2009-09-23 | accessdate=2009-12-21 | pagination=<!--Omitted because a chapter is cited.--> | physicaldescription=<!--Omitted because a web version is cited.--> | serieseditor=Johnson, Edward, editor | series=Is this a real series title? | seriesvolumephrase=no. 7 | language=French | doi=10.1234/5679 | doi_brokendate=2009-12-20 | id=LoC XYZ.23 | isbn=123-456-789-0 | oclc=987654321 | quote=So it goes. | laysummary=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96448.php | laysource=Medical News Today | laydate=2008-02-07 | notes=This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source. | chapterid=Chapter 29 | chapterupdate=revised 2009-07-06 | chapteraccessdate=2009-12-22 | pages=239–43 | chapterlanguage=Turkish | ref=SmithJones2008}}

• Template:Vcite book

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite journal | author=Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC | title=Optimal design of thermally stable proteins | journal=Bioinformatics | volume=24 | issue=20 | pages=2339–43 | date=2008 | pmid=18723523 | pmc=2562006 | doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btn450 | url=http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/20/2339}}

• Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC. Optimal design of thermally stable proteins. Bioinformatics. 2008;24(20):2339–43. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btn450. PMID 18723523. PMC 2562006.

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite journal | author=John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. | author.= | title=Est-ce que c'un vrai article est titre? |title.= | trans_title=Is this a real article title? | articletype=letter | journal=J. Title. | journal.= | edition=Off Ed | journalformat=Internet | date=1999 | update=revised 2002 | archiveurl=http://example.com | archivedate=2003 | accessdate=2009-12-06 | volume=123 | issue=12 | pages=488–93 | language=French | url=http://example.org/xxx | format=PDF | doi=10.1136/bmj.327.7413.488 | doi_brokendate=2009-12-05 | id=LoC XYZ.23 | pmid=1234 | pmc=2082983 | bibcode=1974AJ.....79..819H | quote=So it goes. | laysummary=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96448.php | laysource= Medical News Today | laydate=2008-02-07 | notes=This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source. | partid=Appendix A | parttitle=Sont-elles ces données brutes? | trans_parttitle=Is this raw data? | parttitle.= | partp=491 | parturl=http://example.org/appendix-A | ref=SmithJones1999}}

• John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. Est-ce que c'un vrai article est titre? [Is this a real article title?] [letter] [PDF]. J. Title. (Off Ed) [Internet]. 1999 [revised 2002; archived 2003; cited 2009-12-06];123(12):488–93. French. doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7413.488 (inactive 2009-12-05). LoC XYZ.23. PMID 1234. PMC 2082983. Bibcode:1974AJ.....79..819H. "So it goes." Lay summary: Medical News Today, 2008-02-07. This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source. Appendix A, Sont-elles ces données brutes? [Is this raw data?]; p. 491.

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite news | author=Lohr S | title=Time change a 'mini-Y2K' in tech terms | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/technology/05daylight.html | work=New York Times | date=2007-03-05}}

• Lohr S. Time change a 'mini-Y2K' in tech terms. New York Times. 2007-03-05.

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite news | author=John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. | author.= | title=Est-ce que c'un vrai article est titre? |title.= | trans_title=Is this a real article title? | url=http://example.com | format=PDF | work=Is This a Newspaper Title? | work.= | location=Bucharest | edition=Metro Ed. | workformat=microfiche | date=2009-12-20 | update=updated 2009-12-21 | archiveurl=http://example.com/archive | archivedate=2009-12-22 | accessdate=2009-12-23 | sectionphrase=Opinion | pages=12 | column=2 | language=French | agency=Reuters | publisher=Springer | id={{issn|1234-5678}} | quote=So it goes. | notes=This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source. | ref=SmithJones2009}}

• John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. Est-ce que c'un vrai article est titre? [Is this a real article title?] [PDF]. Is This a Newspaper Title? (Bucharest) (Metro Ed.) [microfiche]. 2009-12-20 [updated 2009-12-21; archived 2009-12-22; cited 2009-12-23]:Opinion:12 (col. 2). French. Reuters. Springer. Template:Issn. "So it goes." This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source.

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite web | author=Phillips RG | home=Wig Wiki | title=What to do when your wig is stolen | url=http://blog.example.com/~phillips/hair-eye-comb/stolen-wig.html | date=2009-12-20 | accessdate=2009-12-24}}

• Phillips RG. Wig Wiki. What to do when your wig is stolen; 2009-12-20 [cited 2009-12-24].

Template:Visible anchor

• {{vcite web | author=R.G. Phillips, Jr. | author.= | home=Cheveux, oeil, peigne? | home.= | trans_home=Hair, eye, comb? | homeurl=http://blog.example.com/~phillips/hair-eye-comb/top.pdf | homeformat=PDF | homeedition=Global | secondaryauthor=K. Phillips, translator | location=Walla Walla, WA | publisher=Idiosyncratic Press | homedate=2009-11-01 | homeupdate=modified 2009-11-19 | homeaccessdate=2009-12-20 | homelanguage=French | homenotes=Notes about the homepage. | format=PDF | title=Τι να κάνει όταν κλέβεται η περούκα σας |trans_title=What to do when your wig is stolen | url=http://blog.example.com/~phillips/hair-eye-comb/stolen-wig.html | date=2009-12-20 | update=modified 2009-12-22 | archiveurl=http://archive.example.com/stolen-wig.html | archivedate=2009-12-23 | accessdate=2009-12-24 | pages=659–61 | size=174 kB | language=Greek | id=LoC XYZ.23 | quote=My goodness! Chase after the thief! | notes=Notes about the web page. | ref=Phillips2009}}

• R.G. Phillips, Jr. Cheveux, oeil, peigne? [Hair, eye, comb?] [PDF]. Global ed. K. Phillips, translator. Walla Walla, WA: Idiosyncratic Press; 2009-11-01 [modified 2009-11-19; cited 2009-12-20]. French. Notes about the homepage. Τι να κάνει όταν κλέβεται η περούκα σας [What to do when your wig is stolen] [PDF]; 2009-12-20 [modified 2009-12-22; archived 2009-12-23; cited 2009-12-24]; p. 659–61; [174 kB]. Greek. LoC XYZ.23. "My goodness! Chase after the thief!" Notes about the web page.

Rationale

This template was originally designed to attack a major problem with {{citation}}, {{cite book}}, etc.: these templates generate pages that can take way too long to load while browsing and editing. The initial version of the revised templates improved the page-generation time for Autism by a factor of two, and reduced the size of its HTML by over 35%.

To improve performance, this template omits the following features of {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc., roughly in descending order of importance:

• COinS metadata, which greatly bloats the output of {{citation}}, {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc. Readers who want COinS data can get it by copying a page into a sandbox and replacing all instances of "{{vcite " or "{{vancite " with "{{cite ". Perhaps a gadget or tool will be developed to automate this task.
• Wikilinks from each instance of "doi" to Digital object identifier, from each instance of "ISBN" to International Standard Book Number, from each instance of "PMID" to PMID, etc. Not only do these links consume needless bytes, they are not that useful and they typically constitute overlinking.
• Automatically-generated Harvard references. The Vancouver style is normally used with numbered footnotes, not with Harvard references, so this deficiency is not serious. Harvard references can still be done fairly easily with |harvid=; see Anchors.
• The vcite variants do not support fancy ways of formatting authors and editors, with parameters like |coauthors=, |last8=, |editor2-first=, and |editor3-link=. Please format author names and links the way you prefer them, inside |author=. Or you can use {{vancite book}} etc., which do support fancy formatting, at some cost in simplicity and performance.
• Boldface volume numbers. Boldfacing is not needed in the Vancouver style, and would be a distracting visual cue.
• Quote marks around titles of chapter or article titles. This is not part of the Vancouver style.

See also

• Citing sources
• {{vcite book}}, {{vancite book}}, {{cite book}} – Cite books.
• {{vcite journal}}, {{vancite journal}}, {{cite journal}} – Cite journal articles.
• {{vcite news}}, {{vancite news}}, {{cite news}} – Cite newspaper articles.
• {{vcite web}}, {{vancite web}}, {{cite web}} – Cite web pages.
• {{citation}} – Cite sources in general.

References